If I’m a IT director, CTO, etc., who’s looking at a refresh cycle on some chunk
of my machines in 12 months or 24 months, that might make me hold off ordering
50K vulnerable PCs until the 24 month period instead. Skip one cycle, double up
on the next. Even if I only shift one refresh cycle, that’s a huge chunk of my
inventory that is no longer vulnerable for whatever my cycle time is. If you
do 20% per year, that means those new unprotected PCs are in your system for 4
years.
Maybe it won’t matter for those who need to add hardware, but it’s the ones
with options that would be in the mix.
While they aren’t a determining factor from a numbers perspective, home users
who’ve been thinking about an upgrade, might put it off for a year or so hoping
there will be a fix. I suppose if they can actually fix the whole issue with a
microcode update it wouldn’t matter.
--
There are 10 kinds of people in the world...
those who understand binary and those who don't.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Jonathan Link
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 1:57 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for
workstations?
Seems unlikely... I mean, if you need a computer, you need a cpu, right?
On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 1:24 PM, Melvin Backus
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
That’s going to put a real dent in chip sales I suspect. I know I’d personally
be holding off any purchases until new non-vulnerable chips are available if I
have any choice.
--
There are 10 kinds of people in the world...
those who understand binary and those who don't.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>]
On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 1:10 PM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for
workstations?
If they have, I’m not aware of it. I expect it’s too late even for the next-gen
chips, given how long it takes to design a new chip and fab it.
Maybe some time in 2019?
From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Heaton, Joseph@Wildlife
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 11:11 AM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for
workstations?
My question to that statement, is: Have any of the chip manufacturers given a
timeframe of when new, fixed, processors will be released?
From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 6:26 PM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for
workstations?
Not going to happen. It’s going to require new processors.
Everything being released is a mitigation, not a “fix”.
From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Ziots
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 4:27 PM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for
workstations?
It would be nice if intel and amd released.processor or bios.firmware update
to.fix the flaw.once and all.
On Jan 9, 2018 2:24 PM, "Michael Leone"
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Here's something (more) I am confused about. Suppose I have Win 7 and Win 10
workstations, and I have properly patched the OS. Do I *also* need to issue the
2 (or is it 3) registry entries?
I *thought* the registry entries were only for servers, but I have seen other
statements that say that the Meltdown/Spectre fixes are *not* enabled until you
issue the registry entries.
So without the reg entries, you are effectively unpatched? The patches are
there, but dormant?
(neither of my home PCs have BIOS updates issued - one is for a very old Dell
Optiplex 755 that I only use to connect to a NAS, and the other is one I
assembled from parts back in 2011. Neither has has had a BIOS upgrade released
in years. Ah, the joy ....)
